Group All Shapes Within A Selection Of Cells
What This VBA Code Does
This VBA code is a nifty little I created to solve the hassle of selecting each shape individually in order to group them. With this code, you can essentially select a range of cells and any shapes within that selected range will get automatically grouped together. Once you have this capability added to your personal macro workbook, you won’t know how you ever lived without it! Enjoy!!
VBA Code:
Sub GroupShapesInsideCellRange()
'PURPOSE: Group all Shapes within a User's Selected Range
'SOURCE: www.TheSpreadsheetGuru.com/the-code-vault
Dim shp As Shape
Dim rng As Range
Dim grp As Object
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
'Pull-in what is selected on screen
Set UserSelection = ActiveWindow.Selection
'Test to see if there is a range selected by the user
On Error Resume Next
Set rng = Selection
On Error GoTo 0
'Group Shapes Within Selected Range
If Not rng Is Nothing Then
'Hide any Shape Outside of User's Selected Range
For Each shp In ActiveSheet.Shapes
If Intersect(rng, shp.TopLeftCell) Is Nothing And _
Intersect(rng, shp.BottomRightCell) Is Nothing Then
If shp.Type <> msoComment Then shp.Visible = msoFalse
End If
Next shp
'Select All Visible Shapes
On Error GoTo Skip
ActiveSheet.Shapes.SelectAll
On Error GoTo 0
'Group Shapes Together and select
If VarType(Selection) = 9 Then
Set grp = Selection.Group
grp.Select
End If
Skip:
'Unhide the rest of the Shapes
For Each shp In ActiveSheet.Shapes
If shp.Type <> msoComment Then
If shp.Visible = msoFalse Then shp.Visible = msoTrue
End If
Next shp
End If
End SubUsing VBA Code Found On The Internet
Now that you’ve found some VBA code that could potentially solve your Excel automation problem, what do you do with it? If you don’t necessarily want to learn how to code VBA and are just looking for the fastest way to implement this code into your spreadsheet, I wrote an article (with video) that explains how to get the VBA code you’ve found running on your spreadsheet.
Getting Started Automating Excel
Are you new to VBA and not sure where to begin? Check out my quickstart guide to learning VBA. This article won’t overwhelm you with fancy coding jargon, as it provides you with a simplistic and straightforward approach to the basic things I wish I knew when trying to teach myself how to automate tasks in Excel with VBA Macros.
Also, if you haven’t checked out Excel’s latest automation feature called Power Query, I have put together a beginner’s guide for automating with Excel’s Power Query feature as well! This little-known built-in Excel feature allows you to merge and clean data automatically with little to no coding!
How Do I Modify This To Fit My Specific Needs?
Chances are this post did not give you the exact answer you were looking for. We all have different situations and it’s impossible to account for every particular need one might have. That’s why I want to share with you: My Guide to Getting the Solution to your Problems FAST! In this article, I explain the best strategies I have come up with over the years to get quick answers to complex problems in Excel, PowerPoint, VBA, you name it!
I highly recommend that you check this guide out before asking me or anyone else in the comments section to solve your specific problem. I can guarantee that 9 times out of 10, one of my strategies will get you the answer(s) you are needing faster than it will take me to get back to you with a possible solution. I try my best to help everyone out, but sometimes I don’t have time to fit everyone’s questions in (there never seem to be quite enough hours in the day!).
I wish you the best of luck and I hope this tutorial gets you heading in the right direction!
After 10+ years of creating macros and developing add-ins, I've compiled all the hacks I wish I had known years ago!
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Chris Newman
Chris is a finance professional and Excel MVP recognized by Microsoft since 2016. With his expertise, he founded TheSpreadsheetGuru blog to help fellow Excel users, where he shares his vast creative solutions & expertise. In addition, he has developed over 7 widely-used Excel Add-ins that have been embraced by individuals and companies worldwide.